Stakeholder engagement with Government legal experts from the Office of the Attorney General, Parliament Legal Services, Kenya Law Reform
Commission and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Naivasha, and Haki Centre and Refugee Consortium of Kenya. Naivasha,
Kenya, November-December 2024. ©UNHCR/Samwel Okute
In the framework of the UNHCR-Ministry of Justice
of Tajikistan joint workplan on ending statelessness,
a roundtable was held on 24 September 2024
to discuss amendments to birth registration
legislation and accession to the UN Statelessness
Conventions, with participation from key government
departments.
In Uzbekistan, on 11 December 2024, UNHCR held
lectures at the University of world economy and
diplomacy and Tashkent State University of law
on statelessness and forcibly displaced persons,
engaging over 100 international relations and law
students.
In Turkmenistan, on 25 September 2024, a ceremony
at the State Migration Service in Ashgabat saw 1,146
formerly stateless people receive passports as new
Turkmen citizens officially resolving all known cases
of statelessness in the country.
On 23 December 2024, the Ministry of Interior,
Federal Affairs, and Reconciliation (MOIFAR) in
Somalia convened the National taskforce meeting
in Mogadishu. The meeting brought together key
stakeholders involved in the implementation of the
National Action Plan on statelessness 2021-2024 and
served as a platform to enhance collaboration, review
the status of ongoing initiatives, and align efforts
toward the successful implementation of the NAP.
Participants reaffirmed their commitment to the plan.
In Kenya, from 9 to 11 December 2024, UNHCR
and NGO partners Haki Centre and Refugee
Consortium of Kenya organized a workshop with
Government legal experts from the Office of the
Attorney General, Parliament Legal Services, Kenya
Law Reform Commission, and the Kenya National
Commission on Human Rights. The workshop
gathered inputs on proposed amendments to the
Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act to provide
for the registration of stateless persons in Kenya.
A revised draft Bill was prepared for presentation
to the relevant committee for publication and
introduction to Parliament. On 9 December, UNHCR
launched a socio-economic report examining the
impact of granting citizenship to stateless individuals
in Kenya, with a focus on the Shona community,
who were granted citizenship in 2021. The report,
which follows the 2019 Socioeconomic Survey of the
Stateless Shona, offers comparative data on legal
recognition’s transformative effects and serves as a
model for policy reforms worldwide.
At the regional level, on 20 November 2024, the
Eastern Africa Nationality Network (EANN), Equality
Now, and the Southern African Nationality Network
(SANN) co-organized the webinar titled ‘Mobilizing
civil society for nationality rights in Africa: advancing
the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Protocol Relating to Specific Aspects of the Right to
a Nationality and the eradication of statelessness
UNHCR > The Campaign to End Statelessness | October – December 2024 Update
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